Retirement fund body EPFO has recorded a net addition of 14.41 lakh members in March this year, according to the latest payroll data released on Monday.

The payroll data highlighted that approximately 11.80 lakh members exited and subsequently rejoined the EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation), a labour ministry statement said.

According to the statement, these members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under the ambit of EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement thus, safeguarding long-term financial well-being and extending their social security protection.

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The EPFO’s provisional payroll data released on Monday also showed that the body has added 14.41 lakh net members in March 2024, the ministry stated.

The data indicates that around 7.47 lakh new members have been enrolled during March 2024.

A noticeable aspect of the data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group, constituting a significant 56.83 per cent of the total new members added in March 2024, indicating that the majority of individuals joining the organised workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers.

Gender-wise analysis of payroll data showed that out of 7.47 lakh new members, around 2 lakh are new female members.

Also, the net female member addition during the month stood at around 2.90 lakh. The female member addition is indicative of a broader shift towards a more inclusive and diverse workforce.

Month-on-month comparison of industry-wise data displays growth in the members working in establishments engaged in industries like manufacturing, marketing servicing, usage of computers, Restaurants, Chartered or regd, accountants, fish processing and non-veg food preservation, beedi making etc. Of the total net membership, around 43 per cent addition is from expert services (consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities etc).

The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise, as updating employee records is a continuous process. The previous data hence gets updated every month.

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Since April 2018, the EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period from September 2017 onwards.

In monthly payroll data, the count of members joining EPFO for the first time through a validated Universal Account Number (UAN), existing members exiting from coverage of EPFO and those who exited but re-joining as members, is taken to arrive at net monthly payroll.